Under the Undergrowth
by Doubletrouble14
Summary: Sportacus and Robbie Rotten are out in the forest looking for the source of the monsters, and encountering many along the way. They get more and more hostile, and Robbie's at his breaking point. Can they make it through to save the town? My lil attempt at a horror story. SPORTAROBBIE, of course. Rating will be changed in the future. (dramatic reverb)


A/N: Hello peoples! This is a wonderful frightening fanfiction that my sister and I have been working on for a while. ((Hallo, I am de sister, yas :3)) aaaaaanyways, just thought I'd post more Sportarobbie for all of you and this plot is pretty flippin' groovy if I do say so myself. Please read and review, my sister and I would appreciate it a lot.

Disclaimer: Sandwich belongs to my sociopathic sister and so do the monsters. Magnus owns Lazy Town and I own nothing except most of the plot. This fanfiction is kind of inspired from Slenderman, Among the Sleep, the Blaire Witch Project, and Lazy Town. Weird combination. I don't own any of those either, heheh. SLENDERMAN WITCH PROJECT AMONG THE LAZY SLEEP

DAY ONE

High up in the sky, Sportacus flipped to the right wall of his airship and kicked a hidden pressure point which launched an apple across the room and right into his hand. "The most important meal of the day!" he chirped, munching enthusiastically on his apple. Suddenly, the crystal on his chest flashed a bright light and screeched. "Someone's in trouble!" he shouted, and then he commanded his door to open. It complied, and he flipped out with his hang glider/back pack into Lazy Town below.

"What's going on?" he called as he landed in front of a panicked mass of people. Milford, the mayor of Lazy town, stopped panicking and turned to Sportacus.

"Oh, Sportacus thank goodness you're here! The most dreadful thing happened!" he exclaimed. Before Sportacus could respond, Stephanie spoke up.

"It was awful, Sportacus!" she cried, "Trixie and I were out playing hide and go seek in the forest when this…this thing…this monster… it tried to kill us, Sportacus!" Sportacus embraced her and she cried into his shoulder.

"It's okay, Stephanie… it was probably just an animal!" he said.

"No… that wasn't an animal. It was a monster! It was so tall, and thin, and it had humungous wings and red eyes and it was all dark… like a shadow! It…" Trixie sobbed. Her voice drifted away as she began her descent into hysterics. Sportacus grabbed Trixie's hand with his available arm and pulled her close. The two girls cried into his shoulders for a while, until he pulled away and looked at them both.

"I'll tell you what," he began, "I will go into the woods and check it out and see if there's anything abnormal there, okay?" he finished.

"No!" Trixie and Stephanie shouted simultaneously. He smiled reassuringly at them.

"Don't work, I'll only be gone for a few minutes, okay? I'll even let you keep my crystal here in case I'm in trouble." The girls reluctantly agreed and Sportacus flipped off into the trees.

In the woods, Sportacus stood up straight and adjusted the empty badge on his chest. Then he began to walk, being careful to only choose paths he knew and to not lose his way. As he walked, he looked around for anything out of the ordinary. In a nearby tree, a bird chirped and he was startled and jumped. Then he laughed and shrugged it off. The kids talking about shadow monsters had made him a little bit tense. Since he was an elf, he knew exactly what the demonic things were, but also knew that they would never go anywhere near Lazy Town unless they sensed a large source of magic, and as far as Sportacus knew, he was the only one with magic. He remembered the first time he had encountered one of the monsters, back in his elf village when he was just a kid.

_"Marcus, wait up!" 8 year old Sportacus shouted, running after his older brother, through the forest that surrounded his village. Marcus stopped and looked around, gaping at the scenery. _

_ "Marcus… we're not supposed to be here," Sportacus warned. Then, for good measure, he added, "Momma wouldn't be very happy if she knew we went so deep into the forest." Marcus laughed and ran his fingers through his younger brother's hair like he always did. _

_ "You little scaredy-cat momma's boy, what're you so afraid of… trees?" he taunted, running even deeper into the forest. Sportacus looked around. Momma wasn't going to be happy about this. He ran after his brother._

_ "Wait up, Marcus!" he yelled again, and then as he rounded a corner, he ran straight into Marcus and fell backwards. "Marcus, we're going to get in…" Sportacus stopped as he saw the thing that made Marcus stand still. A vaguely human-shaped silhouette with glowing red cat-like eyes, bat wings, and a tail stared down at them. It was pitch black and incredibly thin. It smiled a fang-filled, blood red, malicious smile at the two children. Suddenly, Marcus turned around and ran, screaming something unintelligible that sounded suspiciously like profanities. The monster screeched a high-pitched banshee scream and flew after Marcus at the speed of light. "Marcus!" Sportacus screamed, running after his brother as fast as he could. He watched as the black monster engulfed Marcus in his long, twisted arms and the two rolled to a stop. Everything seemed to slow down as Sportacus watched the monster open his mouth, its fangs glistening in the sunlight that shone through the canopy of trees, and move closer to his brother's throat…_

_ Suddenly, Sportacus's mother Aya burst through the trees and blasted the monster with a bright, white light of Holy magic. The monster shrieked and flew away faster than it had chased Marcus. Aya stood in front of Marcus and helped him to his feet. "Marcus, what do you think you're doing?!" she yelled. He looked down sheepishly. _

_ "Well, I… I thought it would be cool if I…"_

_ "Cool?! You almost got killed! What if I hadn't been there to save you?!" she screamed. Then she turned to Sportacus. "I almost expected this from Marcus, but you, Sportacus? What were you thinking, following him into the forest!?" Sportacus looked down at his feet and bit his lip to hold back the tears. _

_ "I'm sorry…" he mumbled. Then he heard her sigh and looked up. _

_ "I love you both, but adults tell you kids to not do certain things for a reason, okay?" the kids both nodded. "I suppose you've both learned your lesson. Let's go home," she said. The two brothers nodded again and followed her out of the woods. _

Sportacus sighed as the memory resurfaced, and decided that there wasn't anything in the woods around Lazy Town, and even if there was, Sportacus had picked up enough holy magic from his mother to scare them away. As long as there was only one. Sportacus emerged from the woods a moment later and smiled at the kids.

"There's nothing in there," he said as he took back his crystal and returned it to the proper place. Trixie and Stephanie looked up at him before Trixie spoke up.

"You weren't there long enough to see it, Sportacus. I asked Pixel to look it up on the internet, and it usually doesn't appear unless you're really far from the town. Stephanie and I saw one when he was… patrolling, I think," she said. Sportacus remembered this from when he was a child.

"Why are the shadows there?" Stephanie asked.

"They kind of wander around when they're searching for heavily populated place or a person with strong aura," Sportacus answered.

"What's an aura?" Trixie asked. Sportacus thought back to what he had learned in elf school when he was just a kid.

"'an invisible emanation produced by and surrounding a person or object: alleged to be discernible by individuals ofsupernormal sensibility', or at least that's what they told me in school when I was just a kid," he said.

"Sportacus you have to get rid of those things!" Stephanie shouted. Sportacus looked back to the forest, and then he smiled at Stephanie.

"If you want me to, I'll go out and camp in the forest for a few days and go as deep as I can, okay?" he said. Stephanie smiled a little bit.

"You can't go alone!" Trixie exclaimed. Sportacus thought for a moment. He couldn't endanger one of the kids, and there was no way he was camping out with , and the mayor was… well, he was the mayor. The only other adult was Robbie and Sportacus highly doubted that Robbie would want to go camping in the middle of the woods for a few days with him. But then he couldn't leave the town alone with Robbie since Robbie was a villain and all. Plus, Robbie did live alone underground and getting out for a few days would probably be good for him.

"I'll bring Robbie with me!" Sportacus chirped. Everyone looked at him skeptically.

"…Sportacus are you really sure that'll work?" Stephanie asked. He nodded.

"It'll be fun!" he said.

"…Well, I suppose if that's what you think, you go ask him to go with you," the mayor said. Sportacus nodded again and flipped off in the direction of Robbie's lair.

"You want me to _what?!_" Robbie exclaimed, his cloudy grey eyes staring right into Sportacus's sky blue ones. Sportacus smiled.

"It's just to help the kids feel better… I'm sure there are no actual shadow demons," he said.

"No. No, no, no. Nooo. I won't do it," Robbie answered.

"Aw, please, Robbie? Stephanie is letting me borrow her really cool orange tent and some sleeping bags. I'll let you use the pink one," Sportacus pleaded.

"I don't want to use the pink one! I don't want to go camping!" Robbie shouted. Then he added, "And if you're leaving town like I've told you to forever I want to be here to witness it!"

"That's another reason I can't let you stay, Robbie," Sportacus reasoned.

"Why would anyone want to go chasing shadow demons? The only reason I can think of is…" Robbie trailed off. He remembered when his dad had done some studying on these kinds of things when Robbie was a kid, and he remembered that if you capture one, they trade their freedom for a wish. Robbie smiled. "Okay, I'll do it. I guess," he surrendered. Sportacus's face lit up like the fourth of July.

"You won't regret this, Robbie. It's going to be so much fun!" Sportacus said, and then he squeezed Robbie in a giant hug. Robbie was surprised and he lost footing and fell down the tube into his lair. "Don't worry about packing tents or sleeping bags, I'll take care of that and meet you at the park in 30 minutes!" Sportacus called down the tube, and then he skipped away.

A half hour later, Robbie trudged unhappily through the gates that led to the park and looked around. The whole town was there to wish Sportacus a happy journey. Oh goodie. He reluctantly waddled over and stood next to the hero who had a large pack on his back that appeared to have everything one might need while camping. Everyone looked at him for a moment, before the mayor spoke up.

"Well, Mr. Rotten, on behalf of the whole town, I'd like to thank you for going on this trip to help keep all of us safe," he said. Robbie almost felt good knowing he was doing something to benefit the community and it scared him. He was a villain, right? He cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"Um… You're welcome," he said. There were a few scattered 'thank you's in the crowd of people before Sportacus chimed in.

"Well, we'd better be off now. Bye everyone! Be safe while we're gone!" he said as he began walking back towards the forest. Robbie reluctantly followed and ignored all the cheering and 'good luck's coming from behind him. "Well, Robbie, are you ready?" Sportacus asked kindly. Robbie adjusted his backpack and sighed.

"As ready as I'll ever be," he muttered. They walked along in awkward silence for a moment before Sportacus spoke.

"I, uh… thanks for coming again, Robbie. I know it'll really make the kids feel safer and happier," he said.

"Oh. Um… sure. No problem," he said. They walked for about 10 minutes with small talk all along the way. Sportacus glanced at Robbie out of the corner of his eye. Robbie looked rather peaceful and happy just walking along in the forest and Sportacus blushed. He wasn't sure why he blushed, but his palms were suddenly sweaty and he didn't know what to say anymore. He really liked Robbie, and he felt like this was a perfect time to get closer to Robbie so they could be friends… but he didn't feel like he wanted to be just friends with Robbie. He wanted them to be more than friends, and he didn't understand the feeling. Sportacus was lost in thought and didn't realize Robbie stopped until Robbie grabbed his arm and Sportacus stopped too. He was about to say something when he realized why Robbie had stopped him. His blood ran cold and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He could feel something watching him, and he didn't like it. He could hear it making deep, gurgled guttural sound, as if it was choking on a thick, syrupy liquid. Like blood. He frantically looked around, trying to see the shadow but he couldn't. It was hidden somewhere and he didn't like that. He looked back at Robbie, and then thought of Marcus.

"Robbie…" he whispered. Robbie looked at him; his eyes wide and panicked. "Robbie, don't run or else it will chase you," he said. Robbie nodded and stepped closer to Sportacus. Suddenly, about a meter behind Robbie, Sportacus saw it. It was tall, with wings and red eyes, but he was too scared to make out any more details. "D…Don't move, Robbie… It's okay…" Sportacus whispered. Robbie's eyes got even wider and he started crying. The monster bent over and put its head right next to Robbie's neck. Robbie bit his lip to hold back a sob. It sniffed him for a minute, and then its long, forked tongue slipped out of its mouth and slithered around Robbie's ear. Tears sped down Robbie's face as he held his breath and waited for the monster to kill him. It made a disappointed growl, and then it flew away.

It took a whole minute before either of them moved. Robbie collapsed on the ground and sobbed openly while Sportacus's brain finally began to work and he realized what had happened. He kneeled next to Robbie and wiped the gooey saliva off of Robbie's head. "Robbie, it wasn't actually going to kill you, it just wanted to make you run so it could chase you," Sportacus whispered. Robbie sat up and smacked Sportacus's hand away while he tried to stifle his sobs. He mumbled something quietly about wanting to go home and his mother. Sportacus moved a hand back to Robbie's face, and to his surprise, Robbie didn't push it away. Sportacus wiped the tears off of Robbie's face and helped him stand up.

"Robbie… I understand if you want to go but… I have to find the source of these things to keep the town safe," Sportacus said, and then he began to walk, alone. He walked for about a minute before he heard footsteps and turned around.

"I'm not a coward, Sportacus! Besides, they'd all make fun of me if I went back… and I'd never be able to sleep with everyone screaming because they're being horrible mutilated and…" Robbie stopped, and then he cleared his throat. Sportacus smiled and wrapped Robbie in another hug, much to Robbie's dislike.

"Well, now we know how to deal with them in an encounter at least," Sportacus pointed out. Robbie nodded.

"I suspect they'll get more hostile as we get closer to the source of all of these things," Robbie said. Sportacus looked at him.

"How do you know so much about these things?" Sportacus asked. Robbie suddenly looked uncomfortable. The memory of his first encounter with one of the shadow monsters tried to surface, but he shoved it back down violently.

"My dad did research on them when I was a kid," he half-lied. Sportacus nodded, and then looked at the sky. Then he looked around the area they were in. It was a small clearing with trees on all sides.

"It looks like it's getting dark, and it's getting colder. We should probably stop and set up camp," Sportacus said. Robbie nodded in agreement. His face was ashen, and he was looking down at the ground, his brow furrowed in concentration. "…You okay?" Sportacus asked him. He nodded again but didn't look up. Sportacus took off his backpack and began to set up the tent. About 20 minutes later, he noticed something was very wrong. "Um… Robbie?" he asked. Robbie looked up from the fire he had started and was currently stoking.

"Yes?" he asked. Sportacus looked down sheepishly, refusing to make eye contact.

"I, uh… I forgot one of the sleeping bags."

"…_what_?!" Robbie seethed. Sportacus didn't look up.

"I… I only brought the pink one. I guess I was so excited that I just… I forgot it. Sorry, Robbie," he mumbled. He heard a stream of profanities, some of which he had never heard before, slip out of Robbie's mouth. "The pink one is pretty big! We could both probably…"

"No. No, no, no, nonononono. No way. I will sleep over there on the ground," Robbie interrupted him.

"You can't do that! It's too cold. You'll probably get hypothermia and_ die_."

"…you're just exaggerating so that I won't."

"I'm not. This forest drops to 30 degrees at night during the winter, and it is winter."

"….."

"And we'll both be really warm in there."

"No! No! NO!"

"I've heard hypothermia is really, really painful."

"Alright, FINE," Robbie gave in. Sportacus smiled.

"Well, I'll make some sandwiches and you get some more firewood, okay?" he said. Robbie sighed/grunted in an irritated way and then waddled off into the forest. Sportacus turned back to his sandwiches and his brow furrowed in thought. Suddenly he heard a thud and turned around. "Robbie, I…" his words got caught in his throat.

It was one of the shadow monsters, but instead of having two red eyes, it had one blue and one red. It had a bob tail and smaller, fluffier wings, and it also seemed a lot clumsier. Sportacus panicked as he spun around and the sandwich in his hand flew at it. The sandwich smacked its face dully and thudded onto the ground. It sniffed at the sandwich and then its forked tongue flicked out and tasted it. It made a satisfied grunt-like noise and deep-throated the sandwich.

"D…do you like that? You like the sandwich?" Sportacus asked it, grabbing the other sandwich and moving closer. It looked up at him and wagged its bob tail so violently that its entire body shook. Sportacus held out the sandwich and took another step closer. It chomped on the sandwich without hesitation, and then rubbed its head against Sportacus's hand. Sportacus laughed and rubbed its head affectionately, and then he went back to his sandwich-making. He was interrupted when suddenly Robbie ran back into the camp. He was screaming and crying, waving his arms everywhere and screaming wild profanities, most of which were again unfamiliar to Sportacus. His face was red and his breathing was rapid. The small shadow hid behind Sportacus.

"Robbie Robbie! What's the matter?!" he shouted, stepping forward and grabbing Robbie's arms. Robbie's high, panicked voice shrieked in several languages at once. Sportacus gently slapped a hand over Robbie's mouth and held him still, checking him over for any bruises or cuts. "What happened, Robbie?" he asked calmly, examining the small scratches on Robbie's face and the saliva around his ear. Robbie wouldn't calm down, so Sportacus did the only thing he knew how to do in this situation.

He hugged him.

After a moment, Robbie finally calmed down and his breathing slowed. Sportacus was about to speak up when Robbie tensed again. Sportacus suddenly remembered the small shadow behind him.

"Um… Robbie. The little one with the crazy eyes is nice, okay? I named him… um… Sandwich. He likes sandwiches," he said calmly. Robbie made a grunty contemplating noise and promptly passed out.

A/N: So! That was… exciting! Thanks to my sister for being my co-author and being fabulous, and I'll see y'all in the next chapter! Bye baiieeee


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